a hot water-based chocolate cake. Use your preferred chocolate frosting to decorate.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 1 – 9×13 inch pan |
Ingredients
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. Mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour mixture. Pour in buttermilk, eggs and vanilla; mix thoroughly.
- Pour cake batter into prepared 9×13 inch baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and frost immediately.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 147 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 26 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 203 mg |
| Sugars | 17 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I love this cake, it’s very popular whenever I make it. Sometimes I use soft brown sugar instead of white and quite often use half milk half natural yoghurt. Easy to make, easy to eat…
This is the best & simplest scratch chocolate cake! It’s super moist!
Cut sugar to 1 1/2 cups made as Directed very moist and delicious
I gave this 5 stars because the boys (aka husband and our 9 sons) absolutely love this cake. It was chocolatey and very moist. I used a ganache icing (bring cream to a boil and then pour over dark chocolate pieces , cover and leave for 5 mins then stir) and even though I made double, it disappeared in 10 minutes!
This cake is excellent. Doubled the recipe (followed it exactly) so I used a 12 x 9 disposable pan and cooked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Had a little batter left so I also made 6 awesome cupcakes. (They became the samplers) Made the butter and powdered sugar with cocoa powder frosting that someone else had suggested. Everyone loved it!!! Warning-this cake is so good you are likely to go back for that second piece that you don’t really need!!!
Excellent recipe! With the exception of decreasing the sugar to 1 1/2 cups I followed the recipe as written. No need to use a mixer..a whisk suffices. I followed dreamsweets recipe for the frosting..another simple delicious recipe. Thank you Terrilee.
this cake is AWESOME! i use 1 cup of strong coffee instead of the water and the flavor is wonderful. =) SUPER good with just a simple glaze made of out powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a little butter. (best with sprinkles 😉
Seriously the best cake I’ve ever made. I made it into cupcakes. Awesome. Cant’s enough good. The only thing is I didn’t have buttermilk so I used Greek yogurt. Fantastic!
well, I made this cake and it turned out tough, not nearly chocolately enough. I followed the directions exactly and made no substitutes. I did bake in 2 round cake pans but less time…..not impressed
This is a great, moist cake! I believe this is the chocolate cake my mother used to make us when I was little as I remember her boiling water for the cake and the taste is similar. I actually made CUPCAKES out of this recipe. Wow, they were awesome! Very moist, yet firm enough to hold up to mounds of buttercream frosting with sprinkles. Thanks so much!
Yum! This cake was a very spur-of-the moment cake, and I picked this recipe simply because it was the first well-rated recipe that I had all the ingredients for. I halved the recipe, used margarine instead of butter, and at least doubled the cocoa powder. I also added about a cup of mini chocolate chips, and I’m glad I did, because the cake itself didn’t have a very strong chocolate taste to it. It took about 40 minutes to bake in a 8×8″ glass pan. I melted together about 1/4 cup butter, 1/3 cup chocolate chips, vanilla, and 1/3 cup milk to make a frosting, and after I pulled the cake out of the oven I poked holes in the top and spread the frosting over. I served it piping hot to an impromtu group of people, and it recieved wonderful reviews; someone even said it was the best chocolate cake they’d ever had. I think a lot of the wonder of the cake was in the fact that it was warm, which really wins desserts a lot of points for most people.
Took five extra minutes to cook but this cake has great flavor! Also, used a heaping 1/4 cup cocoa for flavor punch. I usually add a bit of instant coffee to most chocolate cakes/brownies I make and I did to this one too – about 1-1/2 tsp. Really does a lot to intensify the chocolate flavor. Iced with a cocoa/butter flavor crisco icing and was really really good. I make a similar cake that calls for two sticks of butter – obviously that one is a bit more decadent. The texture on this one was a bit more “fluffy.”
i was a bit worried about making this cake because of one of the reviews,i was pleasantly surprised.i halved all the ingredients as i did not want to make so much.i am also on a restricted diet so i did not use butter and just used some veg oil.instead of butter milk i used soya milk with some cider vinegar mixed together.it turned out so moist and tasty.lovely cake and my whole family are racing through it!
Moist and delicious
this is the exact recipe that my oklahoma mother used and was her chocolate cake of choice. Mom was an army wife and I can say this is time tested through the us and europe. never heard anyone complained they were do busy getting the next bite. fantastic cake. marshall 918
Perfect! I use this recipe when I want to make a ganache frosting. It’s quick, easy and makes a cake thick enough to pick up from the bottom without falling apart. Thank you.
I would have to say that this cake lacked a little bit of flavor. There didn’t seem to be enough chocolate. My kids said it was ok but they prefer another one that I make. I did use a bundt pan and baked it for 38 minutes. UPDATE: Unfortunately my kids and I didn’t even want to have any more of this cake and it went down the disposal. Sorry but I have to change my rating.
I had never made a cake like this and was a little leary, but I followed the directions,[also used regular milk] and was very impressed.This cake is soooo moist and it rose very well. I topped it with p.butter icing [hubby does not like chocolat icing.weird I know] and it is wonderful. This cake does not even need icing. A wonderful light chocolate flavor. Thanks for the receipe!
This cake is soooo moist it almost falls apart in your hands. Everyone loved this recipe so much, a day after it was all gone, I was asked to make it again. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect!
Everyone loved it; iced with icing recipe from previous reviewer.
THIS is the exact recipe my Texas grandmother passed down to my Mom. It was my ultimate favorite cake, growing up. It is very similar to the “Mexican chocolate cake” on this site, except for the stovetop work. This cake is awesome and moist and delicious! My grandmother’s recipe also included a pour-over frosting: melt 1 stick margarine with 6 tablespoons of milk and about 1/4 cup cocoa in a saucepan until it boils, then remove from heat. Beat in powdered sugar (about 4 cups, but I never measure) and 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Pour over warm cake. YUM!